Ross Bagdasarian

Not to be confused with Ross Bagdasarian, Jr..

Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.
Born	Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian
Occupation(s)	Film, television, voice actor

Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972) was an American pianist, singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. In his professional life, he was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Biography

Bagdasarian was of Armenian descent. As a young man, Bagdasarian was in the Broadway cast of The Time of Your Life, written by his famous cousin, William Saroyan. Bagdasarian's first musical success was the song he wrote with Saroyan, "Come on-a My House", sung by Rosemary Clooney. The lyrics are based on dialogue from Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy. They wrote the song on the post-Broadway tour bus of The Time of Your Life.

Career

Bagdasarian had a moderate hit in 1956 under the name Alfi and Harry with the novelty record "The Trouble With Harry," a song with the same title as the then-recent Alfred Hitchcock comedy-thriller movie. According to his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., they were down to their last $200. Bagdasarin spent $190 on a tape recorder that would allow him to change tape speeds. As David Seville, Bagdasarian had another number-one record with his song, "Witch Doctor," which was also his first experiment with speeding an audio track to get the distinctive, comical, squeaky, high-pitched voices. That success led to him to record "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children.

Bagdasarian had played minor roles in films, including Hitchcock's Rear Window, in which he is a piano-playing songwriter who composes, plays, and sings a song called "Lisa." Bagdasarian's dialogue is not clearly heard, and he appears only in long shots, but he is the only other person seen during Hitchcock's notorious cameo appearance. Bagdasarian had bit parts also in The Greatest Show on Earth, Viva Zapata!, Destination Gobi, Stalag 17, Alaska Seas, The Proud and Profane, Three Violent People, Hot Blood, The Deep Six, and The Devil's Hairpin.

After the hit records, Bagdasarian provided the voice for the David Seville character in the Chipmunks' short-lived 1961 animated television series The Alvin Show.

The Chipmunks' recordings, with the performers often labeled as "David Seville and the Chipmunks," typically listed "Bagdasarian" in the authorship credit.

Death

Bagdasarian, not yet 53, died of a heart attack suddenly on January 16, 1972, and was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California. All Chipmunk activity ceased until 1980, when his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., began to release Chipmunks recordings. Ross Jr. also assumed the voice for David Seville and the Chipmunk characters, except for those performed by Ross Jr.'s wife, Janice Karman, such as Theodore and all of The Chipettes. A remix of "Come on-a My House", is the theme song for The Girls Next Door (a.k.a. The Girls of the Playboy Mansion), an American reality television series broadcast on the E! network.

External links

• Ross Bagdasarian at IMDb
• Ross Bagdasarian at AllMovie
• Ross Bagdasarian at Find a Grave
• History area on TheChipmunks.com with some photos and stories about Ross Bagdasarian
• All Music Guide Entry
• David Seville Review at Rockabilly

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